1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a dust collecting and removing device in a circular knitting machine and a knit fabric manufacturing apparatus comprising a knitting portion such as a yarn carrier portion, a sinker portion, a sinker cap portion and a yarn needle portion in the circular knitting machine, a yarn feeding device provided over the knitting portion, a yarn guide portion and a yarn breakage accident detecting device. The yarn manufacturing device is integrated with the circular knitting machine in a room where the knitting machine room is installed (hereinafter referred to as a knitting room) for removing airborne dust as flocks which are generated, floated and collected in a creel for the circular knitting machine which detachably holds a plurality of yarn packages for feeding yarns to the circular knitting machine.
2. Prior Art
In case of knitting by a conventional circular knitting machine, several tens to one hundred plus yarn packages have been needed at a time. Particularly, in case of knitting by a cotton yarn, dust particles are generated in a yarn feeding device, and a yarn guiding device which are connected to the yarn packages, and are floated in the air in a large amounts. The amount of dust is increased as the machine is speeded up.
Since once the dust particles are airborne, they attach again to the yarn feeding device, yarn guide device and knitting portion of the circular knitting machine, they are scattered to machines adjoining to the yarn feeding device, etc. installed in a knitting room so as to cause deterioration of the quality of a knitted product such as yarn breakage and knitting flaw. To solve this problem, as a removing device for removing dust particles which are generated in the circular knitting machine, there has been employed a dust removing machine such as a motor fan or an air blower provided over the circular knitting machine for blowing off the dust.
However, there has been such a drawback in a dust removing machine for blowing off the dust particles by the motor fan, etc. that the dust particles are impossible to be collected and they deteriorate working surroundings in the knitting room, and exert a bad influence upon other machines although they are effective in each of the circular knitting machine.
In the conventional circular knitting machine, a plurality of yarn packages are disposed concentrically over the table of the circular knitting machine and there is a tendency that the given numbers of yarn packages are increased for an advancement of a multiplicity of yarn feedings in the circular knitting machine for improving productivity. On the other hand, as the yarn package has been recently enlarged, it has been difficult to dispose a heavy yarn package on the table.
Accordingly, a creel like a creel for a warper in a weaving mill has been used as a yarn package feeding means of the circular knitting machine. Dust particles which are floated in the air in the creel on which a plurality of yarn packages are mounted are accumulated on the creel and the packages on the creel. If they are left as they are, there has been generated such a drawback that the dust particles are attached to a yarn which is unwound from the yarn package and travel toward the circular knitting machine so that it is knitted in a knitted work to thereby generate knitting flaws.
Accordingly, there has been employed various dust removing devices for the creel such as a fan, a motor fan disposed on a ceiling and a traveling fan. However, such dust removing devices are insufficient for removing the dust particles in the creel and have such a drawback that the dust particles are scattered in the knitting room to thereby exert a bad influence on the circular knitting machine and swing the yarn which travels toward the circular knitting machine.
Whereupon, there has been proposed a method for removing dust particles by providing a housing which surrounds the periphery of the creel by a plate-shaped panel in which air is blown off from the upper portion thereof toward the creel and the yarn package and the blown-off dust particles are collected and removed by a dust collector disposed under the housing. In such a method, since the housing is formed of the plate-shaped panel, a panel in front of the yarn package is needed to be removed during replacement of a yarn package full of the yarn, which is performed when a bobbin is empty upon consumption of the yarn package on the creel. Accordingly, there has been such a drawback that additional labor has been needed during the replacement of the yarn package on the creel during the knitting operation of the circular knitting machine.